I may be biased because I found the subject topic to be interesting even before I took this class, but this is probably my favorite class I've ever taken at UCLA. Winter 2021 was the first time this class was offered as a Writing II class, but it honestly didn't feel as intensive as I thought a writing II class would be. There were three 3-paged essays you had to write throughout the quarter, one on Korean pop music, one on television, and one on movies, and then the final was an essay that combined all of them to discuss the successful globalization of South Korean pop culture. There were no midterms, tests, or quizzes.

There were a lot of readings every week, and we would discuss these readings in class, but I found them to be very interesting and read them with no problem (you could definitely get away with some smart skimming, though). I'm not quite sure how the professor graded participation, but when I took the class, participation was worth 10% of your grade - as long as you contributed once a week in lecture, I think you would be okay. The discussion sections weren't really discussions, but the TA would just teach us how to improve on our writing and go over some of the readings more in-depth. Later on in the course we would also have peer-review sessions during the discussion sections, where we'd look over each other's essays, but I don't think these were very helpful.

The essay prompts were a little bit confusing, but I believe that was only because this class is still in its beginning stages. Sometimes the TA would grade harshly, but if you struggle with writing, don't be afraid to seek help from them because the papers are basically the only things that determine your grade, and they are very helpful and clear on what they want.

I loved this class because I learned so much not only about South Korean popular culture, but also because the professor was a great lecturer. She kept class engaging by constantly asking thought-provoking questions and showing media we discussed/read about in class (like movie trailers or television show scenes). I loved participating, but don't feel pressured to, a lot of people just typed things in the chat, and it was okay. I think they're gonna be changing the structure of this course a lot in the future years, but I would definitely recommend it to anyone seeking to take an easy Writing II class.

This was the worst class I have taken at UCLA. The professor was extremely unhelpful and didn't work with us as students at all. She has no information on the syllabus about what you need to include in your essay to get a good grade, and will penalize you for crazy things you didn't even know were requirements. Lecture was easy but so boring. Your grades are calculated based on your essays which she grades unfairly, and she doesn't offer helpful feedback either. You don't have to do any of the readings which was nice, and overall not that much work. Still not worth it. Don't take this class if you are trying to get an A.